As a sheriff's deputy, I responded one time to a medical emergency at a remote cabin site. A guy was using a homemade splitter and a piece of a clutch assembly exploded into pieces. A piece struck his teenage son slicing off a large section of the right side of his head. The wound was so devastating the family thought the boy had died. When I examined his body it turned out the boy was still alive. I was able to stabilize him until he was eventually medevaced to a hospital. He did survive and about a year later his dad brought him by to thank us. He was paralyzed over most of his body and he lost 1/3 of his brain. Every time I see machines such as these it reminds me of how dangerous they can be. With some of these machines, they are just flittering with disaster.
Mike Henry reminds me of farm work when I was a kid. More ways to get killed or maimed for life. Silage wagon can rip your arms off in thirty seconds. A bull can gore you to death and then stomp on you which happened to my cousin. Tractors can kill you in any number of ways. Fall off the top of a silo and you are either dead or crippled for life. Loosing a number of fingers is common. I lost the end of my left index finger to a chain saw.
@@reginaldbowls7180 I understand your point. As a result of his injuries, the boy was mostly paralyzed below the waist and had lost most of the use of his left arm. However, when they came to visit and say thanks, surprisingly the son was able to communicate quite well and he was able to move himself in the wheelchair. He was far from being in a vegetative state, despite the massive head injury. With the extent of the injuries, I honestly thought he would not have survived, but God works in mysterious ways, as they say.
I heated my home with firewood for two winters. For anyone who hasn't done it, you consume a LOT of wood. I cut up an entire downed tree with a chainsaw, a good 16 inches thick at the stump, and it only lasted like a month. I used a friend's hydraulic log splitter and it was still a lot of work. You might think these people are nuts, but try splitting enough wood for a winter yourself and you'll come up with whatever silly tool you can think of to make it easier. Wood is gold in the winter, and people get real weird about it too, like family after inheritance. The hydraulic splitter I used was really slow. Like you'd be at it for hours, just wondering if it would be faster to use an axe. That said, I really admire the spring-action splitter. No engine racket!
Back when I was still living at home with my parents before college days, my father and I spent many weekends cutting down, cutting up trees and splitting wood to burn in the fireplace that was in the new addition to our house. Some of that equipment would have been very handy during that time! After a few years and I had moved out, they finally sold that house to another party and had a new home built on my grandmother's land after she passed away. The new house did not get a fireplace. That wood cutting and hauling got old and expensive. Cost of chainsaws, maintenance, fuel, not to mention something to haul all that heavy wood to where it would then have to be stacked up and allowed to dry if possible. Hard to burn 'green' wood, plus causes excess creosote deposits in your chimney and the maintenance on that.
It usually is faster or just as fast with a splitting maul than with a hydraulic splitter. And with the knee-height of the hydraulic splitter, it's equally back-breaking, but the maul might be slightly easier imo
These machines remind me of an "adventure" I had when I was a young boy. I was about 13 years old, and my job at home was to make fire wood using a self-constructed (by my father) buzz saw. I did a lots of woodwork that day, and it always needed a little power to press the wood pieces against the saw blade; but suddenly I got a piece of very rotten wood and the saw did cut it in milliseconds; I lost my balance and fell towards the uncovered saw blade; but in the last moment, my hands grabbed the edge of the saw table..plate; looking down I saw the saw blade turning just a few centimeters below my chest...that was horrible. I never did that again with this saw... Hope you all understand my English since I´m German :-)...
Agreed most I think are probably a little less dangerous than swinging an axe around for hours on end, trust me I know I have done it. Wood burning heating is great just time consuming!
Some of these are just regular log splitters. the last one in particular seemed perfectly safe with 2 levers having to be squeezed together before it operates. When you consider that before they get to the splitting they had to fell the trees and buck the logs, the splitting probably isn't usually the most dangerous part of the operation.
Impressed with the cross-splitting capacities of some of these machines. Splitting with the grain is one thing, but going 90 degrees to it is another thing all together. Torque is most definately your friend with the massive reduction gear boxes. Being forever aware of hand and finger placement is critical, unless you like the nickname; stumpy.
4:43 Texting not recommended while doing this. This is my favorite one, the one that splits the wood faster than any of the others, and also the only one that works when you have no electricity or fuel. Also the simplest, made from Parts you can scrounge from any salvage yard.
@@TurboDV8 Someone points out something obviously true and you go straight to calling them a millennial for no reason? Your name is TurboDV8, you're a trump supporter and you rant about millennials on the internet, you're a walking stereotype bud.
As as logging contractor for over 20+ years in the Sierra's I have seen a lot of homemade functional splitters. A few of these were pretty impressive. All of these tools can be dangerous.
A few of the splitting machines in the video were obviously commercial units. Unless very old, they are typically more safe because any manufacturer would want to avoid getting sued.
It seems anything that is designed to process wood has the potential to get you killed. That's why they mainly had me who were intelligent as the operators,and they had to put all those labels on everything when the common sense that was taught to children by their fathers, was eliminated from the society in the 60's. It's only getting worse and every generation is a little dumber. Now days they don't even know what bathroom to use.
@@devilselbow There have been cases of an employee losing fingers and the employer getting fined/sued because the employee apparently hadn't been instructed well enough in the use of the device. So, it's not always safe even if someone else is doing it.
I love the way these woods split as soon as you look at them. most of the stuff I have been working with, the wedge has to go full stroke and even they will fight splitting. Half these machines would just fail.
@@zachdemand4508 IKR? He thinks this is bad, I wonder how he'd react to being in a steel mill? Ten Tons of molten Iron travelling over your head, held up by chains...
My uncle was a mechanic who had a service station and garage out in the boonies, starting in 1930. He had a stripped down Model T Ford, actually an old Yellow Cab, with a big wood-saw blade welded to the drive shaft. This is where he chopped his firewood. He could not have designed it any more dangerously if he tried. He had all ten fingers, but only one eye. He lost the other one working on a car, but not by sawing wood. The Model T is still sitting there to this day, or rather what is left of it.
I understand your uncle completely he was building it for him and he was pretty slick. Most modern consumer things are devised and thought up by a pretty smart person and sold to a not very smart person that's why they're so dangerous. I mean all three the smart person the not very smart person and the machine.
@@sherrycambridge1531 Haha, LOVE it! Some of these machines are stupid dangerous, most are as dangerous as the user is stupid. Get a city person who drives a new SUV to do this?, that's how stupid i am talking about.
The one shown at 3:18 is no more dangerous than any commercially made log splitter. The keys to safety: NO pinch point between the pusher and the blade, low speed, single actuation each time a log is inserted.
1) arm remover 2) skull splitter 3) hand detacther 4) log splitter - nice and slow, plenty of room to have hands in middle and not be on the pinching or cutting end
Went back and rewatched it 5 times. If you'll notice when he bends down to clear or set up for the next piece, he bends at the knees which prevents his head from the work area. Plus after using a machine for a long time you know where is safe. I'd trust this chopper more than some of the others. Personal choice.
1:25 this is the safest one yet... The runway needs to be a trough or "V" shape to hold the wood more securely and prevent the user from having to steady the log. Also the blade should not get close enough to the die to do any damage to a hand.
That's kind of like saying it's not dangerous to cross the street as long as you only stay on one side. What makes some of them dangerous (some of these were not that dangerous) is that they are operating whether the person has a hand in the way or not, and rapidly at that. A moment's inattention with some of these and bam, there goes your hand. A standard, relatively safe one requires one to at least throw a lever each time and goes slow enough you could stop before you lopped off your hand.
Andy if you are focused on what you are doing and don’t senselessly get your hands any closer than they need to be, all of these machines are perfectly safe.
Lord Penguin, of course, but that is not the definition of “safe” - too big of a caveat. Trust me, I know, as my entire life has involved high-risk activities and safety/risk analysis.
The saw especially, how hard exactly is it to attach something to it so a person doesn't need to be there wrenching their back trying to catch the falling pieces :D
@@marshallallensmith Dont worry grandpappy it won't take long for me to see you in the other side. You better be doing your exercises...you'll need it.
Only a splitter of death if you were an idiot, for anyone else with a healthy respect for a machine it's just a log splitter. Then again we have to have warnings on hot coffee cups that the coffee inside is HOT!
Jim Beekman, small price to pay right? Lol By the way, do you have kin in New Mexico or Nebraska? I know Amber and have met her parents. I also met a man by the name of Jeff Jorde a long time ago near Willard, New Mexico. Amber told me she was related.
I've work in a can manufacting company almost thirty years ago. And believe me, the press machines I've worked on are far more dangerous than these. We were 40 or so newbies at that time, more than half lost their fingers before our six months contract expired, I'm one of the luckies with ten fingers still intact. The machines above are just child's play in my standards.
That's how our grand parents did things. No corporate entity telling them it's safe because they manufactured it and sold it to said grandparents. But nowadays everyone needs corporate assistance for the slightest inconveniences.
Most of these are less if not no more dangerous than using a chainsaw or axe, but the 2nd and 7th are my favourites, the cut is coming from above and they are both bending down in line and height with it, a stumble or lapse in concentration and it's melon splitting time, the wreck of a work area is a helpful touch too.
I need more information about the splitter in the frame 7:38 to 8:56. That machine is both quiet and efficient.Crazy in fact that machine is so quiet I think a newborn baby could sleep next to it
a few of these machines where quite reasonable, some even commercal products. But the home made spring cleaver was quite cool, would personaly have put a hydraulic break on it that was active all the time until you pressed the handel, that way you dont have to worry about smashing your hand while putting a new log on. and yes, like many i got randomly reccomended these videos, but also. i have worked in the commercial firewood business before and we used Dalen wood processing machines
3:15 I have the same setup. Homemade pull behind trailer style on an i beam frame with an old Wisconsin motor powering a hyd. cylinder with about a 20” stroke. It splits 30” dia logs up to 20” long and tears through the knottiest wood
man a guy could really make a in depth detailed video comparing each of the different models shown here, whats the primary driver? whats the limitations of each one, costs to maintain. how effective it is.this is really interesting stuff
They're all made as cheap as possible from scrap. They're all dangerous, and if they break u probably just make a new one. Safest log splinters u can make are hydraulic, only linear movement, no spinning parts. Ones that are constantly running are the most dangerous
I just choked on my drink. Reminds me of seeing a guy at the store about thirty years ago with my dad. Dad said "oh look, it's old flying rim. He blew his jaw off overfilling a tire."
LOL, I remember the first "real" job I did for my Grandad when I was about 14.. He rented one of these machines and I operated it for 3 whole days.. the fire wood I cut lasted over 5 years at my family cottage. my grandad gave me $20 for the work..
Good machines do everything possible to prevent you from using it the wrong way. Machines on this video are all inherently unsafe (not the spring thing). You could easily have your limbs severed if you made a slightest error, your clothes could get caught lethally, none of them would stop automatically if something happened, and if you tripped you might have your head split exactly the same way as those logs. So they could harm you if you made a mistake - accidentally. Good splitting machines are designed to be operated from a distance of the blade. You can't reach the log or the blade while the blade moves. They have no moving parts right next to you ever. You would have to modify the safe machine to cause harm to yourself. If you count that as using it the wrong way so be it but it would be intentional instead of accidental. Unfortunately modern log splitters often have another problem: they can be operated in pairs. Safer machines are slower so people try to cut corners by using them with someone else. It's not uncommon to have a father operating the machine with his son - or to put in other words: to have a father severing fingers of his son. But hey, at least you can't kill yourself with it, so it's safer - to you. And those who are worried about the cost: please calculate how much splitted firewood could you buy with the expense of a lost finger or an arm.
@@McSlobo Well I wouldn't suggest that all the machines are "safe", But; I've been in construction for over 3 decades..I have personally worked with HUNDREDS of pieces of equipment that could KILL you, not just maim... Most of those machines I saw in the video were machines of necessity; i.e lacking the finances, poor access to good equipment etc...Again; If used the wrong way; ANYTHING can kill you...Name an object and I'll tell you how it can kill you... So, as they say in Oz...No worries mate!
The spring loaded one is genius, the only issue I see is that the handle protrudes so much it gets close to the operators head. Just design the handle differently and it's frikking perfect and a far cry better then using a axe.
Scott Clark nothing more fun than knotty crappy wood that won’t split for nothing! You can either cut it up with a chainsaw or burn it in a pile outside lol
The spring loaded giotene looks to be most dangerous of all the "rigs" I saw. Idea is good but operator takes a lot of chances around the point of impact. Bending and hands close for two examples. Good idea, bit deadly. Thanks
4:40 That's pretty cool! There's always someone out there with a good head on their shoulders to come up with some clever things with scrap metal laying around
I love that these are homemade and yet so many are still at the precise optimum height for back pain.
j carry Yeah I didnt see one that was perfect
many not home made...
None were homemade
The one that was on a spring was the best one
The one with the spring, is realy simple, i like it.
Love the spring action splitter. Simple and genius. Old Guy really had the techniques down too.
Right?! I really want to make one like that. No motors, hydraulics, etc. Brilliant.
I'd bet he did after he got conked in the head a few dozen times learning it
@@nou8257 I think you meant " . . . and survived long enough to learn and breed" . Very important to win the Darwin award(s).
@@stringlarson1247 true
@@stringlarson1247 BRILLIANT, my first thought exactly.
4:40 Big spring and muscle power! The simplest is the best.
@@nuclearquantumlaserspewpew9745 He needs the extra expense of a crash helmet!
@@nuclearquantumlaserspewpew9745 Being Russian did not save Leon Trotsky!
That one and the one at 8:00 are what i would go with
@@mrsillywalk He wasn't Russian.
I’m so clumsy I’d split my scalp more than wood.
As a sheriff's deputy, I responded one time to a medical emergency at a remote cabin site. A guy was using a homemade splitter and a piece of a clutch assembly exploded into pieces. A piece struck his teenage son slicing off a large section of the right side of his head. The wound was so devastating the family thought the boy had died. When I examined his body it turned out the boy was still alive. I was able to stabilize him until he was eventually medevaced to a hospital. He did survive and about a year later his dad brought him by to thank us. He was paralyzed over most of his body and he lost 1/3 of his brain. Every time I see machines such as these it reminds me of how dangerous they can be. With some of these machines, they are just flittering with disaster.
Mike Henry. Well Said!
Mike Henry reminds me of farm work when I was a kid. More ways to get killed or maimed for life. Silage wagon can rip your arms off in thirty seconds. A bull can gore you to death and then stomp on you which happened to my cousin. Tractors can kill you in any number of ways. Fall off the top of a silo and you are either dead or crippled for life. Loosing a number of fingers is common. I lost the end of my left index finger to a chain saw.
Good job! I love people like you who try their best and do save someones life.
Hmm I wonder if the father regrets your actions at all.
@@reginaldbowls7180 I understand your point. As a result of his injuries, the boy was mostly paralyzed below the waist and had lost most of the use of his left arm. However, when they came to visit and say thanks, surprisingly the son was able to communicate quite well and he was able to move himself in the wheelchair. He was far from being in a vegetative state, despite the massive head injury. With the extent of the injuries, I honestly thought he would not have survived, but God works in mysterious ways, as they say.
I heated my home with firewood for two winters. For anyone who hasn't done it, you consume a LOT of wood. I cut up an entire downed tree with a chainsaw, a good 16 inches thick at the stump, and it only lasted like a month. I used a friend's hydraulic log splitter and it was still a lot of work. You might think these people are nuts, but try splitting enough wood for a winter yourself and you'll come up with whatever silly tool you can think of to make it easier. Wood is gold in the winter, and people get real weird about it too, like family after inheritance.
The hydraulic splitter I used was really slow. Like you'd be at it for hours, just wondering if it would be faster to use an axe. That said, I really admire the spring-action splitter. No engine racket!
Back when I was still living at home with my parents before college days, my father and I spent many weekends cutting down, cutting up trees and splitting wood to burn in the fireplace that was in the new addition to our house. Some of that equipment would have been very handy during that time! After a few years and I had moved out, they finally sold that house to another party and had a new home built on my grandmother's land after she passed away.
The new house did not get a fireplace. That wood cutting and hauling got old and expensive. Cost of chainsaws, maintenance, fuel, not to mention something to haul all that heavy wood to where it would then have to be stacked up and allowed to dry if possible. Hard to burn 'green' wood, plus causes excess creosote deposits in your chimney and the maintenance on that.
It usually is faster or just as fast with a splitting maul than with a hydraulic splitter. And with the knee-height of the hydraulic splitter, it's equally back-breaking, but the maul might be slightly easier imo
Best one is 4:42, no fuel or electricity need. Love the use of the spring to offset weight
I had to skip forward just to see it. I like it too
These machines remind me of an "adventure" I had when I was a young boy. I was about 13 years old, and my job at home was to make fire wood using a self-constructed (by my father) buzz saw.
I did a lots of woodwork that day, and it always needed a little power to press the wood pieces against the saw blade; but suddenly I got a piece of very rotten wood and the saw did cut it in milliseconds; I lost my balance and fell towards the uncovered saw blade; but in the last moment, my hands grabbed the edge of the saw table..plate; looking down I saw the saw blade turning just a few centimeters below my chest...that was horrible. I never did that again with this saw... Hope you all understand my English since I´m German :-)...
Disaster averted.
Glad you made it.
bro, you were inches from death. thats crazy!!
I'll call the Ordnungsamt! 😉
Not every machine of these is homemade and/or dangerous.
I know... and either way I'm thinking "Yep. I'd use it!"
Agreed most I think are probably a little less dangerous than swinging an axe around for hours on end, trust me I know I have done it. Wood burning heating is great just time consuming!
Agreed
@@larz101a working an hourly job to pay for heat is also time consuming
The commercial ones are an example of some safer methods
Some of these are just regular log splitters. the last one in particular seemed perfectly safe with 2 levers having to be squeezed together before it operates. When you consider that before they get to the splitting they had to fell the trees and buck the logs, the splitting probably isn't usually the most dangerous part of the operation.
yeah the last one is for sure not home made. look at all th safety covers and everything
The old man with the spring loaded splitter gets my vote 🏆
gets my vote too
Impressed with the cross-splitting capacities of some of these machines. Splitting with the grain is one thing, but going 90 degrees to it is another thing all together. Torque is most definately your friend with the massive reduction gear boxes. Being forever aware of hand and finger placement is critical, unless you like the nickname; stumpy.
The forces at play are huge.. wouldn't be surprised to see the metal just shatter and spring in all directions
@@Legrascestlavie88 that's exactly what can happen, and you end up with rather large pieces of shrapnel
4:43 Texting not recommended while doing this. This is my favorite one, the one that splits the wood faster than any of the others, and also the only one that works when you have no electricity or fuel. Also the simplest, made from Parts you can scrounge from any salvage yard.
Its also the one that is the most labor intensive and dangerous
@@LucasSommer sounds like a millennial. Version to both work, and risk. I say let natural selection take its course!
TurboDV8 not a millennial, just pointing out the draw backs of this design
@@TurboDV8 Someone points out something obviously true and you go straight to calling them a millennial for no reason?
Your name is TurboDV8, you're a trump supporter and you rant about millennials on the internet, you're a walking stereotype bud.
I like the one with the big spring 4:40. Your the one in full control with very minimal effort. Very nice design. Underrated for sure.
It's way too jumpy and fast.
Sure it's simple but one mistake and he will have a big cut and a blow into his body be it arm,sholder,head or hand.
As as logging contractor for over 20+ years in the Sierra's I have seen a lot of homemade functional splitters. A few of these were pretty impressive. All of these tools can be dangerous.
A few of the splitting machines in the video were obviously commercial units. Unless very old, they are typically more safe because any manufacturer would want to avoid getting sued.
It seems anything that is designed to process wood has the potential to get you killed. That's why they mainly had me who were intelligent as the operators,and they had to put all those labels on everything when the common sense that was taught to children by their fathers, was eliminated from the society in the 60's. It's only getting worse and every generation is a little dumber. Now days they don't even know what bathroom to use.
Every tool is dangerous if improperly handled
@@devilselbow There have been cases of an employee losing fingers and the employer getting fined/sued because the employee apparently hadn't been instructed well enough in the use of the device. So, it's not always safe even if someone else is doing it.
@@herrakaarme q11
I love the way these woods split as soon as you look at them. most of the stuff I have been working with, the wedge has to go full stroke and even they will fight splitting. Half these machines would just fail.
Those are the ones splitting pine or other soft wood that splits just about as easily as looking at them.
ah yes... nothing like a seasoned twisted foot and a half diameter elm log. ..lol
Bet you’re Australian,
For the 1% of people randomly scrolling through the comments...
Have a great day and may all your dreams come true!
The same to you!
Ehrenmann bin auch aus der Schweiz
I'm one of the1%
Thx for that mate
Landwirtschaft in der Schweiz - HD I guess this is the one time in my life I can call myself part of the 1% 😂 have a nice day too!
i liked the one using the spring
That one was the best.
100% manual
Love the 2nd one , bends down underneath it to get more wood....crack, splits he's head in 2.
I wouldn't use that
Please use a hard hat Whit it.
Becours i think menny of us would shortly forget what is over auer head, then er bow down for the timber.
I love it... ear protection with a open spinning blade
Why not..
Having a brain can protect you from the blade, any one can lose hearing after exposure to loud noises
You have never seen a saw mill have you?
@@zachdemand4508 IKR? He thinks this is bad, I wonder how he'd react to being in a steel mill? Ten Tons of molten Iron travelling over your head, held up by chains...
I love the human-powered unit. So ingenious, and very productive too!
My uncle was a mechanic who had a service station and garage out in the boonies, starting in 1930. He had a stripped down Model T Ford, actually an old Yellow Cab, with a big wood-saw blade welded to the drive shaft. This is where he chopped his firewood. He could not have designed it any more dangerously if he tried. He had all ten fingers, but only one eye. He lost the other one working on a car, but not by sawing wood. The Model T is still sitting there to this day, or rather what is left of it.
I understand your uncle completely he was building it for him and he was pretty slick. Most modern consumer things are devised and thought up by a pretty smart person and sold to a not very smart person that's why they're so dangerous. I mean all three the smart person the not very smart person and the machine.
I Don't Know About Dangerous
But I Do Truly Admire The Inventiveness Of This Machinery !!!!!
Clever inventiveness yes but if you don't think their dangerous then you know little to nothing about machinery.
Mr. Tennyson, Please!
Since You Do Not Know How To Spell, I Give Little Credence To Your Comment .............
@@sherrycambridge1531 Haha, LOVE it! Some of these machines are stupid dangerous, most are as dangerous as the user is stupid. Get a city person who drives a new SUV to do this?, that's how stupid i am talking about.
@@dt9913 . Maybe you should stay in the house then,
My favorite is the people-powered bouncy spring one. THAT is genius!
Doesn’t need gas or electricity.
Easy to split wood in every case. I want to see a piece of live oak tried out.
I'm guessing they design machines to handle the wood they're actually going to burn. How much live oak do you split and chuck in your stove?
Enough to know that live oak can be a real bitch.
Ever try to split Iron Wood?
@@willybee3056 Yes but it splits just fine
'
12:37 isn't that oak?
The big spring at 4:40 gets my vote we use spring coils at the top of the hoist to return the bucket,same idea.Hello from Australia on the opal fields
The one shown at 3:18 is no more dangerous than any commercially made log splitter. The keys to safety: NO pinch point between the pusher and the blade, low speed, single actuation each time a log is inserted.
Oh my god, what will split this rotting birch, poplar and pine?
You mean, besides a hatchet?
How about my 4 year old grand daughter bare hand?
7:38 seemed oak to me.
And around 3:35 maybe locust. Those split relatively easily, but still hardwood.
MrAnticlimate density of the wood doesn’t mean much when it comes to splitting. Some woods have interlocking grain that make them super hard to split.
I like the hand-powered spring one....very ingenious
That long lever / spring design seems like the safest one to use, easiest to control.
Exactly what I was thinking.
The bar could still hit you on the head.
Thumbs up for the grand father using no external sources of energy
I'd bet the farm, More people would freeze without these fine pieces of equipment than there would be wounds from miss use.
Most dangerous homemade automatic firewood processor; 11yo son
Facts.
I'll trade ya. Work with my 13 yo daughter for a day and get back to me about who's more dangerous. ;)
old mans at 4:40's the best . he uses momentum, everyone else uses fuel.
1) arm remover
2) skull splitter
3) hand detacther
4) log splitter - nice and slow, plenty of room to have hands in middle and not be on the pinching or cutting end
I am glad I am only one that
Thinks most of these are dangerous,
Slip at wrong time, your Dead or Injured
He who chops his own firewood warms himself twice..
I notice the wood is all straight grained easy split. Some of the knurled lumber I deal with would jam up these contraptions.
The Orange one behind the tractor, That thing is sweet!
5:30 That thing smacked me in the head six times just watching him.
Went back and rewatched it 5 times. If you'll notice when he bends down to clear or set up for the next piece, he bends at the knees which prevents his head from the work area. Plus after using a machine for a long time you know where is safe.
I'd trust this chopper more than some of the others. Personal choice.
A true splitting headache
1:25 this is the safest one yet... The runway needs to be a trough or "V" shape to hold the wood more securely and prevent the user from having to steady the log. Also the blade should not get close enough to the die to do any damage to a hand.
I dunno. 5:40 looks like something the kids would have fun using and do a good job.
That's what i was thinking. That's actually quite an impressive machine and the 2 guys seem competent.
None of these are dangerous as long as the person using them is capable. A pencil is dangerous depending on who you give it to.
**writes a book that convinces everyone who reads it to become a Nazi**
Oh yea, after a bottle of Vodka?
That's kind of like saying it's not dangerous to cross the street as long as you only stay on one side. What makes some of them dangerous (some of these were not that dangerous) is that they are operating whether the person has a hand in the way or not, and rapidly at that. A moment's inattention with some of these and bam, there goes your hand. A standard, relatively safe one requires one to at least throw a lever each time and goes slow enough you could stop before you lopped off your hand.
Andy if you are focused on what you are doing and don’t senselessly get your hands any closer than they need to be, all of these machines are perfectly safe.
Lord Penguin, of course, but that is not the definition of “safe” - too big of a caveat. Trust me, I know, as my entire life has involved high-risk activities and safety/risk analysis.
It’s called “ingenuity “, that’s how greatness is created!
As impressive as the engineering is on a few of these, I can't believe none had an automated feed system.
The saw especially, how hard exactly is it to attach something to it so a person doesn't need to be there wrenching their back trying to catch the falling pieces :D
The wood most DIY folks use is not uniform so an automatic feed big enough for jumbo pieces would likely jam with smaller pieces.
That would take the fun out of trying not to cut your fingers/hand/arm/head/leg off..
You know you were loved when grandpappy only left you his splitter of death in the will.
Hahaha👍
Which was also his cause of death.
@@SteveMacSticky yves
P po
@@marshallallensmith Dont worry grandpappy it won't take long for me to see you in the other side. You better be doing your exercises...you'll need it.
Only a splitter of death if you were an idiot, for anyone else with a healthy respect for a machine it's just a log splitter.
Then again we have to have warnings on hot coffee cups that the coffee inside is HOT!
Only 4 fingers were lost while making this video...
Jim Beekman, small price to pay right? Lol By the way, do you have kin in New Mexico or Nebraska? I know Amber and have met her parents. I also met a man by the name of Jeff Jorde a long time ago near Willard, New Mexico. Amber told me she was related.
Still remaining six more
Excellent comment, lol,
Luckily they were only prosthetic fingers and the holes in the gloves were repaired so that they would not lose anymore.
Igdirsondakahaberler
I've work in a can manufacting company almost thirty years ago. And believe me, the press machines I've worked on are far more dangerous than these. We were 40 or so newbies at that time, more than half lost their fingers before our six months contract expired, I'm one of the luckies with ten fingers still intact. The machines above are just child's play in my standards.
I worked as a machinist after leaving school, my tradesman was missing a thumb lol
Bit of redgum would make all of these machines very safe because they would be either stalled or broken
And next week's show wil be how to find your fingers in the wood pile!
It's like bow hunting... jus follow the blood trail.
Simple! Just wear a biker ring on each finger and always keep a metal detector on the job site
these are some of the most Dangerous contraptions i think i've seen
That's how our grand parents did things. No corporate entity telling them it's safe because they manufactured it and sold it to said grandparents. But nowadays everyone needs corporate assistance for the slightest inconveniences.
@Martin G pfft, they kept the important ones though.
Some of these are not even dangerous unless your whole body falls into it.
So youre saying maybe losing your arm is not dangerous?
@@Chris-yy7qc if one loses their am on a simple machine like this 🤦🏼♂️
@@Chris-yy7qc 'tis but a scratch.
watch at 2x speed!! :oS
Guess you never smashed your finger splitting wood
The massive axes on springs had me kinda nervous ngl 😂
Most of these are less if not no more dangerous than using a chainsaw or axe, but the 2nd and 7th are my favourites, the cut is coming from above and they are both bending down in line and height with it, a stumble or lapse in concentration and it's melon splitting time, the wreck of a work area is a helpful touch too.
Thanks for your sympathetic comments
I agree
Cool machines best one i liked was the one the guy Pulled Down by hand. cool.simple fast safe imo
And quite.
Safe? You can't tell where the head is going to hit and it comes in at speed. One misplaced finger and it's gone.
Most inventions come from Eastern Europe and Russia it's a necessity when you have no other means of money
The one at 4:50 is probably the safest of them all, best and simplest design.
I need more information about the splitter in the frame 7:38 to 8:56. That machine is both quiet and efficient.Crazy in fact that machine is so quiet I think a newborn baby could sleep next to it
a few of these machines where quite reasonable, some even commercal products. But the home made spring cleaver was quite cool, would personaly have put a hydraulic break on it that was active all the time until you pressed the handel, that way you dont have to worry about smashing your hand while putting a new log on. and yes, like many i got randomly reccomended these videos, but also. i have worked in the commercial firewood business before and we used Dalen wood processing machines
3:15 I have the same setup. Homemade pull behind trailer style on an i beam frame with an old Wisconsin motor powering a hyd. cylinder with about a 20” stroke. It splits 30” dia logs up to 20” long and tears through the knottiest wood
Spring and cantilever with a cutting head is brilliant, simple design, no electric or hydraulic power required.
Дед с ручным подпружиненным колуном самый крутой👍 на 4-40
The first one is the coolest.
Agree 👍
The danger does not come from the machine but from the human ;-)
man a guy could really make a in depth detailed video comparing each of the different models shown here, whats the primary driver? whats the limitations of each one, costs to maintain. how effective it is.this is really interesting stuff
They're all made as cheap as possible from scrap. They're all dangerous, and if they break u probably just make a new one. Safest log splinters u can make are hydraulic, only linear movement, no spinning parts. Ones that are constantly running are the most dangerous
And thats how uncle lefty got his name son.
Made me shoot coffee outta my nose - hilarious
I just choked on my drink.
Reminds me of seeing a guy at the store about thirty years ago with my dad. Dad said "oh look, it's old flying rim. He blew his jaw off overfilling a tire."
LOL, I remember the first "real" job I did for my Grandad when I was about 14.. He rented one of these machines and I operated it for 3 whole days.. the fire wood I cut lasted over 5 years at my family cottage.
my grandad gave me $20 for the work..
azonicrider32 hahahhahaaha you should have asked for more old grandpa robbed you
Score.
And by homemade you mean professional quality equipment made by large manufacturers. Congrats
If the first two were spinning at 200+ mph, they’d be ideal candidates for BattleBots. Seriously, there’s some major ingenuity going on here.
Respect to the elderly gent at 5:00!😊💪
what ever keeps you from freezing to death
Lol
My thought exactly
Working
Beginning @ 0:43 secs it appears the operator might end up splitting his own head. Not a good idea to be ducking because soon he might duck too late.
Who wouldn't want one of these automatic finger removing machines
People have been thinking how to get out of chopping wood all day and now have so many toys to make it so easy !
Dangerous?! These are fantastic bud
i love the machine @ 4:40
Insane i will build it for splitting on sundays!
And the guy with the springloaded splitter only needed gloves with 3 fingers. Lol.
Yeah,bouncing a lot:)
-------And no weenie!!
I like the manual splitter best. 5:05 no engine noise, no gas fumes to breath in and supper low maintenance requirement. 👍
Live-fast-and-Die-Young Woodsplitter!
the first one
I see no danger for my generation but now a days there would been two hands and a least one arm relocated.
Eggplant parmmegiono
Eggplant parmigiano
Thats right, gloves makes it all safe😂
Why are all the firewood videos always softwood, here we burn oak and hickory and maple which would rip these machines apart
I think you pretty much answered your own question. I will admit some are fairly clever, but some look like they were welded by Ray Charles.
I figured it was because all that grows in that area is birch, poplar, etc. That's why they need so much of it.
jerome clements I think Ray Charles could have done a better job tell you the truth
Hardwood dust is poisonous for one.
my 45 ton log splitter will eat oak and hickory for lunch
I don't see the "danger" in the second one if you watch what you are doing, AND...it's the quietist one in here...love it.
4:45 seems completely safer, to be honest. Even more so than with an axe, wedge and sledgehammer.
I can’t even chew without biting my tongue every now and then.
All of these aren't homemade.
I believe me when you can show me where to buy one of these 4:44
Yeah, title is a little weird. Homemade? Dangerous (yes, of course, but are they all potentially?). Should have just said "10 wood-splitting devices"
Most of the machines are homemade and therefore potentially dangerous
It's a green energy! Renewable resource! Solar powered. Pulls co2 from the air. Everyone should be for firewood!!!
3:31 This video is incredible, it made me smile! 😊
I think they went to the junk yard got a load of junk and then put it together. The winner is the old man with the spring counter balance.
That one will be great for when the power goes out and there's no fuel left, but I kept waiting for him to bang his head on it.
And why you include stuff like tractor driven hyrdaulic presses under title "dangerous home-made" when its a professional grade tool?
Poor Coyote because they know it pisses people like you off.....quit your bitching and enjoy the video
The machines all looked good to me...Everything is dangerous if you use it the wrong way...
Good machines do everything possible to prevent you from using it the wrong way. Machines on this video are all inherently unsafe (not the spring thing). You could easily have your limbs severed if you made a slightest error, your clothes could get caught lethally, none of them would stop automatically if something happened, and if you tripped you might have your head split exactly the same way as those logs. So they could harm you if you made a mistake - accidentally.
Good splitting machines are designed to be operated from a distance of the blade. You can't reach the log or the blade while the blade moves. They have no moving parts right next to you ever. You would have to modify the safe machine to cause harm to yourself. If you count that as using it the wrong way so be it but it would be intentional instead of accidental.
Unfortunately modern log splitters often have another problem: they can be operated in pairs. Safer machines are slower so people try to cut corners by using them with someone else. It's not uncommon to have a father operating the machine with his son - or to put in other words: to have a father severing fingers of his son. But hey, at least you can't kill yourself with it, so it's safer - to you.
And those who are worried about the cost: please calculate how much splitted firewood could you buy with the expense of a lost finger or an arm.
@@McSlobo Well I wouldn't suggest that all the machines are "safe", But; I've been in construction for over 3 decades..I have personally worked with HUNDREDS of pieces of equipment that could KILL you, not just maim...
Most of those machines I saw in the video were machines of necessity; i.e lacking the finances, poor access to good equipment etc...Again; If used the wrong way; ANYTHING can kill you...Name an object and I'll tell you how it can kill you...
So, as they say in Oz...No worries mate!
@@godbluffvdgg A Spone! XD
I love it when the guy ducks under to reach a log below and always an inch away from the killer, second machine 1:12
The spring loaded one is genius, the only issue I see is that the handle protrudes so much it gets close to the operators head. Just design the handle differently and it's frikking perfect and a far cry better then using a axe.
So much straight grain wood . Oh to live in the perfect world ! Knots , twisted grain and crotch woods are what I have to split 😥
Scott Clark nothing more fun than knotty crappy wood that won’t split for nothing! You can either cut it up with a chainsaw or burn it in a pile outside lol
I really loved that spring loaded "nodding donkey" axe. What a great idea.
Just make sure you know where to keep your hand lol
What our ancestors did to keep warm in the winter was astounding.
The spring loaded giotene looks to be most dangerous of all the "rigs" I saw. Idea is good but operator takes a lot of chances around the point of impact. Bending and hands close for two examples. Good idea, bit deadly. Thanks
Next video: ten best emergency room amputation/crush injury cases. But ya still gotta love some of these inventions.
At 4:50 the one with the human spring powered was the best lol.
what could possibly fo wrong ?
Love #2 where operator's head aligns with blade when bending over for another piece of wood to split. Prfect resolution to stupidity
I'd say that's the most dangerous one in the bunch.
4:40 That's pretty cool! There's always someone out there with a good head on their shoulders to come up with some clever things with scrap metal laying around
Why is this so satisfying to watch?
S
The grasshopper leg crankmeister 5000 is a good design.
Also works on chickens!
Hahahaha
Haha these machines are good for final destination